ISLAMABAD: The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has initiated a plan to revamp its working and existing guidelines on procedural aspects of competition law in the country.

During the process, the CCP will also add new guidelines, particularly ones regarding the interpretation and application of provisions relating to prohibition of anti-competitive behaviour.

Drafting and publishing these guidelines would help explain competition law in simple terms and therefore benefit the stakeholders, especially businesses and the general public, the CCP said.

The commission has published the ‘Guidelines on Section 3: Abuse of Dominance’ as a first in a series of similar publications that will follow soon.

In the guidelines, commentary on various aspects of abuse of dominance is supplemented with easy-to-understand examples and illustrations.

It is expected that the guidelines will greatly help stakeholders in understanding and complying with the law.

While these guidelines have currently been published in English and Urdu, the translation into regional languages is under way and will be completed soon, it said.

The guidelines have also been published CCP’s website. In the next step, the commission plans to publish its guidelines on voluntary compliance which would help businesses in voluntarily adopting measures that minimise the risk of violating competition law and ensuring that business practices are in compliance with competition principles.

This initiative is being undertaken as part of CCP’s advocacy mandate provided under Section 29 of the Competition Act of 2010, which entails an active role of the commission in creating competition awareness in the country.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2016